Nickelodeon’s animated preschool bilingual heroine Dora the Explorer becomes the latest to bop through a looking-glass. Originally aired as “Dora in Wonderland” in March (Season 7, Episode 16), it is now available on YouTube and DVD. It features Mel Brooks as the Mad Hatter and Alan Cumming as the White Rabbit.

For those who just can’t get enough High Definition Czech surrealist cinema with a Carrollian twist, this is definitely for you. Released back in April, the Jan Svankmajer Alice is now on Blu-Ray. Check out this New York Times article. Said the Rabbit.

Animator Jennifer Linton want to make a film about Alice in contemporary Toronto using stop motion techniques. Her Indiegogo campaign has be a huge success having already reached its goal, but its not too late to get in on the perks and contribute to what looks like a beautiful modern retelling. Visit her Indiegogo page for all the details.

What better way to start the new year than with a classic 1930’s Alice-themed cartoon? Here is Betty Boop as Alice, in a “Blunderland” that only Max Fleischer could have dreamed up. If you haven’t seen this in a while, or if (gasp!) you’ve never seen it, sit back and enjoy! (If the video doesn’t display below, try reloading this page.)

“Carroll’s Isa Bowman and ’60s icon Petula Clark? In the same movie!? Yep, Vote for Huggett (1949) featured Isa (then 75), her sisters Nellie and Empsie Bowman, and former child star Petula Clark (17, singing “In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree”). Also in the cast were David Tomlinson (George Banks in Mary Poppins), popular screen beauty Diana Dors (18), and Anthony Newley. Based on the radio series Meet the Huggets (1953–61), the movie is now available in a 4-DVD set called The Huggetts Collection, from ITV.”

Isa Bowman of course was one of Lewis Carroll’s closest child friends after Alice, and wrote a book about her visits with him, Lewis Carroll As I Knew Him(and later published under another title, as well). She had a small role in the first authorized stage production of Alice in London, and played the role of Alice in the revival a few years later.

If you attended our fall meeting in Los Angeles, you may have already seen a sample of this new tool in action: a company called Plotagon has created an Alice in Wonderland pack for their animated movie creation software. All you need to do is write your own story, add it to Plotagon’s software, and the Wonderland avatars then perform your script. The tool is currently in Beta (final testing) stage, and at the moment it’s completely free to download and use.

Please read their FAQs and Terms of Service carefully before you start. If you want to share your little featurettes, you would need to upload your finished project to Plotagon’s web site, and share a link from there. And while you retain rights to any original story you create, Plotagon retains rights to all aspects of their software, so you are creating projects with joint ownership. There is of course also the likelihood that Plotagon will charge for use of the software and/or hosting down the road. For now, however, we have been assured it’s free to download and use.